MLB

A's head into winter hoping to keep team intact

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)

The final rally of Oakland's surprising season fell short.

In a year featuring a majors-best 14 walkoff wins, another in
Game 4 of the AL division series, and countless whipped cream pie
celebrations along the way, the Athletics' comeback season ended
with another dropped series to Detroit.

Yet nobody thought this bunch of rookies and newcomers would
even be playing well into October. And few gave them a fighting
chance after falling behind 2-0 in the best-of-five series before
Oakland pulled off another remarkable rally to force a decisive
Game 5.

The Tigers won Thursday's clincher 6-0.

''I didn't see it ending this way, you know?'' closer Grant
Balfour said. ''I honestly thought something crazy might happen out
there and we'd throw a couple up there and we'd pull it out, but it
didn't work out that way. We have to hold our heads high. We had a
great year. It's just frustrating when you're that close and you
feel like you got a taste of it and someone takes it away from
you.''

The AL West champion A's became the first team in major league
history to win a division or pennant after trailing by five games
with less than 10 to play.

General manager Billy Beane plans to keep his team intact as
much as possible heading toward 2013.

Yet manager Bob Melvin had a tough time looking ahead Friday,
the sting of losing still too fresh a day later. He planned to fly
home to New York on Saturday.

''If you want to go back and reflect on what the expectations
were, probably pretty remarkable,'' he said, sitting in his office
Friday as players trickled into the clubhouse to pack up their
belongings. ''But once you get into it, you are who you are, and
it's a pretty empty day. I didn't plan on spending my day like this
today.''

This is the club that held not one but two clubhouse clinch
parties in three days last week, first when it secured a playoff
spot and again after winning the West for the first time in six
years.

Melvin was in full support of his team celebrating its feats.
Especially considering everything the A's had endured in the final
months. From losing opening day starter Brandon McCarthy after he
took a line drive to the head that required brain surgery, fellow
starter Bartolo Colon to a 50-game drug suspension and then, the
unthinkable: Reliever Pat Neshek's newborn son, Gehrig, died 23
hours after his birth just before the playoffs began.

More than anything, they stuck together.

''I think we're in great shape,'' Beane said. ''The satisfying
thing about the crowd last night is they're going to see, by and
large, this team next year. We're going to try to continue the
momentum in the winter, and we should be able to build on this. I
really like this group.''

Josh Reddick, whose big bat fueled a stunning run to overtake
Texas for the AL West crown on the season's final day, struck out
10 times in the series and the A's finished with 50 Ks - the most
in franchise history in a five-game series.

He was hardly the only one in a series of swings and misses by a
team that was red-hot and riding high only a week ago.

''We came a long way and accomplished a lot, so we're obviously
upset that it didn't go very far,'' Reddick said. ''But on the
other hand very proud of everybody's accomplishments this year,
personal and team-wise. I feel like we made a huge mark on this
league.''

This energetic young group with 12 rookies heads into the
offseason as great overachievers. Owner Lew Wolff has said it,
Beane hinted at it and even Manager of the Year candidate Melvin
said most everybody else in baseball would never have seen this
coming from the low-budget club.

The A's payroll of $59.5 million is lowest in the majors, and
the A's won 94 games.

That's after Beane traded away three of his top pitchers last
winter to rebuild: Gio Gonzalez to the Nationals, Trevor Cahill to
Arizona and All-Star closer Andrew Bailey to Boston.

He doesn't expect to unload the same way this offseason
considering the youth of the team. Beane hopes to bring back
would-be free agents Jonny Gomes and McCarthy and pick up Balfour's
$4.5 million club option for 2013.

Upstart Oakland made a remarkable September surge, then swept
and stunned the two-time reigning AL champion Texas Rangers in the
season-ending series to capture the AL West crown in Game No. 162.
That set off a second celebratory dance party in the clubhouse in
three days after Oakland first secured a playoff spot Oct. 1.

''It's definitely been the greatest experience of my career,''
said center fielder Coco Crisp, who had his share of success with
the Red Sox and won the 2007 World Series with Boston. ''It was a
lot of fun. Of course everybody hates that it has to end right
now.''

The A's became the first team in major league history to win the
division or pennant after trailing by five or more games with fewer
than 10 to go. The A's were five back of the Rangers with nine
left, then won their final six all at home with sweeps of Seattle
and Texas.

But the Tigers got them again. Just as Detroit did in a
four-game sweep in the 2006 AL championship series - the last
postseason appearance by the A's.

Melvin and hitting coach Chili Davis called strikeouts part of
the game for the powerful A's, whose 112 homers after the All-Star
break were the most in baseball.

Yoenis Cespedes wrapped up his sensational rookie season by
batting .316 (6 for 19) with two RBIs in the playoffs. Though he
didn't want to discuss his year Friday while gathering his things -
''next year,'' he said.

''We have nothing to hang our heads low about,'' Reddick said.
''We had a great season and came really a long way and proved a lot
of people wrong.''

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